Brush with the stars..

It all started on the 25th May evening when the scriptwriter of the host show - On the Beat 2 came down to the museum. The museum would be highlighted in the show and he needed to know the interesting stories. Which we have plenty to share of course.

Siva set us on an impromptu tour with Spruce then and we gave him a version of the Heartlander's tour we had rehearsed and presented only the day before. It was different though as he had a lot of questions for us. Embarrassingly, there were some questions that baffled both me and Danliang.

After the tour and chasing Spruce back (because we forgot Siva wanted to review what knowledge he had), most of his questions were answered by Siva himself. He was particularly interested in the pitcher plant and its preference for cheese. That'd have to be confirmed when I make a call to Gwynne.

He was excited upon learning that preservations are done within the museum and after a whole series of finding people to find courage to appear on TV, Joelle , a researcher on crabs finally was game enough to yes.

With questions answered and a demonstration all prepared, all that remains is the filming session on the 29th of May.

The artistes, Vivian Lai, Jeremy Tian and Tang Ling Wi were all bounding with energy. It's amazing how they can keep up so much energy. I guess it's all in their job scope. Among the items that we told Spruce about, he picked the leathery turtle, the leopard, the roadkill leopard cat and the Pasir Panjang shark.

After which we went straight down to level one to demonstrate the preservation of a flower crab that Mr. Yeo has kindly bought from the market only the day before. Joelle did the explanations of preservation in chinese, which I thought was really good! All the complicated terms sounded strange but I guessed she pulled it off. Also, the lab coat and gloves made her look really professional at the same time.

So after a whole lot of NGs, the film finally came to an end. The entire process took about 2 hours. And how long was this going to be featured in the program? "Only 1/4 of the show!" Spruce enlightened me. I guess artistes don't have it easy as well. In fact, they were hurrying off to another location to finish 1/8th of the host program.

Finally, to what you all have been waiting for, the showtime! It airs on Channel U at 8.30pm on the 12th of June. So, remember to turn on your television with the right channel at the precise time to catch a glimpse of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research!